The measures, if approved by the council, would be among more than a dozen referendums that may come before county voters in November.

One proposal, designed to create regulations for removing a council member, was proposed just before Severn Democrat Daryl Jones completed a five-month federal prison term for failing to file a tax return.

It also came just before Maryland's highest court agreed to hear Jones' challenge to having been thrown off the County Council. With no provision for removing a member in place, the council had ousted Jones from office because the prison term meant he wouldn't be living in his district.

With County Executive John R. Leopold fighting criminal charges that he used his police security detail for personal and political gain, the council also is considering tweaking existing provisions for removing a county executive to mirror those for council members.

Both measures would allow for the removal of officials who are found guilty of a felony or certain other crimes, and it was the precise wording — a judgment or a conviction — that came under question, with the county attorney having made one suggestion and his deputy another.

Council Chairman Derek Fink said he expected the question over the language would be straightened out in time for the next council meeting. Most council members had sponsored the proposed charter changes.

In a measure that will go before voters, the council voted 5-2 to give themselves the option of taking the month of August off.

Seven more charter changes were introduced Monday night, including one aimed at avoiding a repeat of the 108 rounds of voting that took place before the council voted to fill Jones' seat with Peter Smith. It would create provisions for the county executive to appoint a replacement if the council doesn't do so within 30 days of a vacancy's being created.

With the possibility of more than a dozen questions for county residents — in addition to presidential and other high-stakes contests, and statewide referendum questions — council members have started to wonder whether voters' eyes will glaze over when they get to the local part of the ballot and face so many referendums.

"There could potentially be a lot of these things. ... If we have 20 of these ballot questions on there, by the time people get to them, they're going to have a little bit of voter fatigue," Councilman Chris Trumbauer, an Annapolis Democrat, had said.

After shooting down the state's request for disaster aid for the second time last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Maryland could recover costs associated with rioting that broke out after the death of Freddie Gray in other ways.

Sen. Ben Cardin has emerged as a central figure in the debate over the pending nuclear deal with Iran, joining a small group of lawmakers who could decide the future of one of President Barack Obama's most significant foreign policies.

After 10 people were shot — seven of them in one incident — overnight in Baltimore following the city's most violent month in decades, police announced Sunday that 10 federal agents will embed with the city's homicide unit for the next two months.